European Parliament calls on the EU Council and the European Commission to urgently present a timetable for Romania’s accession to Schengen 

MEP Victor Negrescu has obtained the support of a large number of MEPs to call in the plenary of the European Parliament representatives of the EU Council and the European Commission for a debate on the accession of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia to the Schengen area, according to a press release sent by the PSD to G4Media.ro.

The initiators call on the Commission and the Council to urgently present a timetable for accession and also to specify whether the extension of the European area of free movement will be put to the vote in December, as requested by the signatories.

More than 50 MEPs from all the pro-European political groups supported this important step for our country, so the technical criterion for the specific parliamentary procedure to be triggered and, consequently, for a debate in the plenary of the European Parliament is fulfilled.

„With this initiative, the European Parliament demonstrates once again that it is the European institution that has consistently supported Romania’s accession to the Schengen area. The EU Council and the European Commission are invited to present a timetable for our country’s accession to the Schengen area and, at the same time, to say whether, in line with our request, this decision will be taken at the Justice and Home Affairs Council in December, so that Romania can become a member of the free movement area from next year.

This follows on from the petition which we submitted and which was debated by the European legislature, as well as the resolutions adopted in this regard. In this context, the support of more than 50 fellow MEPs confirms their support for the request we made last week in the plenary of the European Parliament for a vote this year in the EU Council.

I thank all my colleagues in the Romanian delegation, as well as those from other Member States, from all political groups, for their support. We have shown that it is in Romania’s interest and European unity that we can be united”, said the Romanian representative in the European Parliament, MEP Victor Negrescu.

Social Democrat MEP Victor Negrescu recently stressed in the European Parliament the need to join the Schengen area in order to ensure equal rights for Romanian citizens at European level, but also to benefit from the advantages of this status, such as increased exports and profits or the development and efficiency of the transport sector.

The MEP recently initiated the #RomaniiMerităÎnSchengen (e.n. Romanians deserve to be in Schengen) campaign, together with the Social Democratic Party and PES activists in Romania, through which, in the first part of the year, all European leaders who can influence the decision on Romania’s accession to the Schengen area were contacted, and now, throughout the country, messages of support for this objective are being collected, sent by Romanians through tens of thousands of postcards provided by the organizers and which will be deposited at the Council headquarters.

National coordinator of PES activists in Romania, PSD MEP Victor Negrescu also initiated, in 2015, another campaign, #RomaniaCereÎnSchengen, an initiative supported by more than 40,000 Romanians that generated a decision in the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament and, subsequently, an important resolution of support for Romania’s accession to the Schengen area.